bottles and formula question

Hi ladies,

I really wanted to ask how many bottles you really used in one day. I saw the list of things we would need and it listed 14 bottles for twins. Did you really need that many? Did you need more/less? Also I saw on a past post that someone had said they made up a whole days worth of formula in the individual bottles for convenience instead of making them as you go. Is that the best way? I have two children already (6 and 2 1/2) but I know I am still not prepared for how different these girls are going to be. I am a little over two weeks away from the big day and want to make sure I am ready. I really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

Melissa

 

I had 16 bottles, and used every one of them! My two ate every 3 hours for awhile, and I liked only having to wash them once a day. As far as making bottles....I put the powdered formula in a clean, dry, bottle, and added room temp water when they were ready to eat. Good luck with your delivery!

 

I didn't feed much formula, but... I'd think you'd want to have a full day's worth of bottles. Then you (or Daddy :icon_biggrin: ) can wash just once a day.

 

I don't think we even have that many bottles now...maybe we have 10?

This is what we do for formula prep. I have a jug of nursery water in their bathroom along with the can of formula. We just leave the water out at room temperature and make as we need it. It's not a big deal at all...for us anyway. I think this is an easier way then making ahead of time and then having to warm the formula up!

 

we have about 12 bottles- we use the ventaire standard variety... we used avent and soothie in the beginning but the boys disliked those so we are ventaire all the way.

as for washing- they go in the dishwasher every day- sometimes I handwash them, but kind of a pain. we use costco formula, it's much more reasonable than the other brands, however it does foam up a little more. i also would recommend getting some gas drops to put in the bottles- the stuff works wonders.
we go though about a can every three days- it's nuts! In the beginning you will use much less though.

we have a brita pitcher that we use for water- the thing about preparing all the bottles in the fridge is you have to heat them up.. ugh. I did that for the first couple days and it got old fast.

 

every two hours mine wanted to eat. we had 10 bottles so i was washing them 2X a day. i quickly went out and bought more. i started to pre mix the formula in the beginning and had bottles for the whole day made. then i realized hey it's quicker to make them as i go. so i had a bottle of spring water out at room temperature and when it was almost time for a feeding i made the bottles and when it was time to eat then it was ready for them.

 

I have 2 2oz bottles, 8 4oz bottles, and 18 8oz bottles. Maybe thats a lot, but I like having extra on hand for those crazy days with little or no time. I used to make the formula in a pitcher and serve it up as I needed it. I learned really quickly that it took way longer to do that because you have to heat the bottles in the warmer before you can give it to them because its COLD. I make the bottles as I need them now, and its much more efficient. Typically my girls will drink their bottles at room temperature, but I heat up the water in the microwave for their night time bottle. I don't know why, but I just do... One thing that I bought that I love is a handheld formula mixer (its like $3.99), it really helps to avoid formula chunks and speeds up the process. HTH!

 

Right now I have 19 bottles. We did just have 9 and that was not enough! I like making the bottles in advance - much easier. Mine are eating every 3 hours.

 

Wow Ladies,

Thank you so much! I love reading what you have all done and worked for you. I appreciate the input so much. Every post makes me feel a bit more prepared for what is to come. Thank you!

Melissa

 

Melissa,

Our boys were big eaters and always finished their bottles. So, I had 16 bottles in the beginning and used them all everyday. I liked only having to wash bottles once per day. I made up bottles for the next 24 hours until the boys were about 9 months old. I just found it so much easier and I loved being able to grab a bottle and go someplace. I did it two different ways. In the beginning, I made 16 bottles up at once. Then, I got smart...I got a nice, sturdy Sterlite jug and figured out how much formula in cups I needed and how many ounces of water. I made one big jug up every night before bed and it was SO easy to just pour it out the next day. Plus it allowed the foamy bubbles to dissolve overnight. Good luck with the big day!

 

In the beginning, we used 16 bottles per day and made them ahead of time. I made 16 bottles each night before bed for the next day....Well, theoretically the 'next day' - they ate every 3 hours 'round the clock until 2.5 months, then we dropped two bottles at night (the 12am ad 3am). We also used ready-to-feed because they have reflux and the powder made them vomit....So making 16 bottles only meant pouring out formula into them and not mixing....pretty easy, lol

 

QUOTE(mricharde @ Apr 8 2008, 12:44 AM) [snapback]710362[/snapback]
Hi ladies,

I really wanted to ask how many bottles you really used in one day. I saw the list of things we would need and it listed 14 bottles for twins. Did you really need that many? Did you need more/less? Also I saw on a past post that someone had said they made up a whole days worth of formula in the individual bottles for convenience instead of making them as you go. Is that the best way? I have two children already (6 and 2 1/2) but I know I am still not prepared for how different these girls are going to be. I am a little over two weeks away from the big day and want to make sure I am ready. I really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

Melissa


We had about 15 bottles. We liked to have enough at least for one full day (and when they got a little older, it was enough for 2 days). It was much easier to stick them in the dishwasher as they got dirty and then run it every night, instead of worrying about whether we had any clean bottles.

We also made a whole days worth of formula and poured it ahead of time. This was mostly because we had to do that for daycare, and once we were in the habit, it was just as easy to do that on the weekends too. If you're going to be home with them, it doesn't take that much time to pour the bottles just before feeding, but I still think it's worth it to make all the formula.

 

I have always made up pitchers of formula for the day and poured them all at once so I don't have to mess with it the rest of the day. It works well for me. So in the beginning, they drank every 3 hours so I needed 8 bottles for each of them to get through one day, 16 bottles total. I like to have a few extra...I think I have 24 bottles...some small but the rest bigger.

Now they are down to 3 bottles each a day, which is a cinch to make up ahead of time

 

We were on 8 bottle a day per kid for a long time. I actually got 24 bottles so I had some extras and then eventually when they went down to 6 bottles a day per kid I had enough for two full days. This worked well so that I could run the dishwasher once a night.

 

We have about 20 bottles that we use. I make them up in the morning, just putting the room temperature water in each, then add the formula to them as needed. I always have the formula measured out in dispensers so everything is ready to go because you never know when they're going to be screaming they're sooo hungry, lol. I keep it all organized on a tray that I keep on my living room table, which is where the girls are fed throughout the day. You can never be too organized when it comes to having twinfants!

 

FWIW..instead of washing a million bottles a day we switched to the playtex drop-in system. The liners are presterilized then you can toss them when done. As an added feature the liners are BPA free if you're concerned about that. You can buy extra nipples to switch out...works great in the diaper bag too...only need to carry two bottle forms, extra liners, extra nipples (and of course water & formula) instead of guessing how many bottles to bring for an outing. HTH!!

 

QUOTE(mricharde @ Apr 7 2008, 08:44 PM) [snapback]710362[/snapback]
Hi ladies,

I really wanted to ask how many bottles you really used in one day. I saw the list of things we would need and it listed 14 bottles for twins. Did you really need that many? Did you need more/less? Also I saw on a past post that someone had said they made up a whole days worth of formula in the individual bottles for convenience instead of making them as you go. Is that the best way? I have two children already (6 and 2 1/2) but I know I am still not prepared for how different these girls are going to be. I am a little over two weeks away from the big day and want to make sure I am ready. I really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

Melissa


I probably wouldn't buy a ton of bottles and nipples until after the babies come and you know what you are going to like. We had a couple different gift sets - Playtex Dropins and The First Years Breast Flow, as well as a few random bottles to try. We ended up loving the Drop Ins. I have 18 bottles. We use 16 to 18 a day (the older they get, the longer they go between feedings, so it is getting to be 14 to 16 a day). What we do is every night, I wash all the bottles (just rinse the bottles since they are drop ins, wash the rings and nipples), and make formula by the pitcher (32 oz). I make up 8 sets of bottles all at once and put them in the fridge, along with whatever is left in the pitcher. Then we just grab the bottles and heat them up in cups of hot water from the tap. I find it to be easier. The formula left in the pitcher is used if they want more at a given feeding and then I use it to start the next round of bottles (I know that technically you are supposed to use it within 24 hours, but I figure it's not a big deal if their first set of bottles overnight is slightly more than 24 hours old!) This works great for us, but definitely requires that we have 16 to 18 bottles, rings, and nipples. I would like to work toward having twice as many bottles and nipples as I need so that I can work out washing them in the dishwasher and alternating "sets". I haven't been able to get it together enough to wash them in the dishwasher yet - as odd as that sounds! With the drop ins, it's hard to mix in the bottles, so we are mixing in another container, which is why I find it easier to just mix by the pitcher and pre-fill the bottles. LOVE the Drops ins with twins - and I second how easy it is to travel because you just need two bottles and then extra liners and nipples.